Home-owner house purchase lending up 21 per cent year-on-year - CML

This is the most amount borrowed in the month of February for house purchase since February 2007, the CML said.

There is traditionally lower activity in the winter months compared to other seasons and first-time buyers and home movers saw little change in February compared to January, but compared to the same month last year both grew substantially by volume and by value.

They took out 48,000 loans, up 4 per cent on January and 12 per cent on February 2015.

First-time buyers borrowed £3.4bn, up 3 per cent on January and 21 per cent on February last year. This totalled 22,000 loans, up 3 per cent month-on-month and 11 per cent year-on-year.

Home movers borrowed £5.3bn, up 4 per cent on January and up 20 per cent compared to a year ago. This totalled 26,000 loans, up 4 per cent month-on-month and up 14 per cent on February 2015.

Remortgage activity totalled £4.8bn, down 17 per cent on January but up 37 per cent compared to a year ago. This came to 28,400 loans, down 15 per cent month-on-month but up 24 per cent compared to a year ago.

Landlords borrowed £3.7bn in February, unchanged month-on-month but up 61 per cent year-on-year. This came to 23,700 loans in total, up 1 per cent compared to January and up 47 per cent compared to February 2015.

Paul Smee, director general of the CML, said: “In 2016, there have been substantial increases in house purchase and remortgage activity year-on-year. This reflects the sluggish market in early 2015, perhaps driven by election uncertainties. Buy-to-let has also seen substantial year-on-year increases, with particularly strong growth in remortgaging, a pattern which we have seen in the buy-to-let sector the past six months. Activity has been boosted by landlords seeking to complete purchases before tax changes in April. We do not expect activity to show such strong year-on-year growth later in the year.”